Townshend seismic isolation products

[Geoff.R.G]

Spot on Stu, there has to be some movement otherwise it is a coupling. Suspended turntables seem to move too much.

[NSNO2021]

Stu if anyone was an " all or nothing" person it's you. I am still pursuing the all in mode but I can see myself one day saying, enough is enough and moving on but right now that's some way off.

[Geoff.R.G]

I am really impressed that a small group of enthusiasts should be able to reproduce the effects of a £500 isolation platform using materials costing two orders of magnitude less. Not only that but managed to identify limitations and exaggerations in the manufacturers advertising.

[karatestu]

I am really impressed that a small group of enthusiasts should be able to reproduce the effects of a £500 isolation platform using materials costing two orders of magnitude less. Not only that but managed to identify limitations and exaggerations in the manufacturers advertising.

Thanks Geoff We are well known here for being sceptical about claims, bling, advertising and marketing fluff. There have been people who have already done similar and made their own with either tubes or springs. I read that somebody using springs costed the materials at about £80 for two platforms, eight springs and associated sundries. Of the course the inner tube version comes in much much cheaper.

I would never ever consider dropping £500+ on an isolating product. Does that £500 only buy you one ? If so £ 1000 por a pair ? I will leave the real thing for those with more money than me.

It has had an amazing effect on the music for me. Better in every way across the whole audio frequency range of my set up. Happy days.

[karatestu]

Stu if anyone was an " all or nothing" person it's you. I am still pursuing the all in mode but I can see myself one day saying, enough is enough and moving on but right now that's some way off.

I hope it works out for you Paul. I don't know what the exact problem is except that you couldn't get it stable. I suppose your speakers weigh a lot more than mine especially with those 8mm steel plate stands that don't have a square footprint. Could you try some light square stands to see if that is the problem? Or a bigger diameter tube and platform ?

With springs you can specify stronger (if thats the right word) springs to go under the side that has more mass if the weight is unevenly distributed . Obviously we don't have that luxury with inner tubes. The Townshend products also increase the footprint of the speakers which gives more stability.

Sorry, not trying to teach you how to suck eggs but maybe a fresh set of eyes might help.

Regards, Stu

[Geoff.R.G]

Stu if anyone was an " all or nothing" person it's you. I am still pursuing the all in mode but I can see myself one day saying, enough is enough and moving on but right now that's some way off.

I hope it works out for you Paul. I don't know what the exact problem is except that you couldn't get it stable. I suppose your speakers weigh a lot more than mine especially with those 8mm steel plate stands that don't have a square footprint. Could you try some light square stands to see if that is the problem? Or a bigger diameter tube and platform ?

With springs you can specify stronger (if thats the right word) springs to go under the side that has more mass if the weight is unevenly distributed . Obviously we don't have that luxury with inner tubes. The Townshend products also increase the footprint of the speakers which gives more stability.

Sorry, not trying to teach you how to suck eggs but maybe a fresh set of eyes might help.

Regards, Stu

I would imagine that the Townshend products have been designed to cope with all the vagaries of speaker weight distribution which will go some way to explaining why they are priced as they are. However, whilst I am sure the make a difference I am equally sure that they are not a universal cure-all. I am sitting downstairs with Radio 3 playing in the bedroom above, I can't hear anything being radiated from the ceiling despite the speakers being on stands spiked to the chipboard floor. This is probably because the level is quite low but sufficient for listening 8 feet away. Additionally there are other noises in the house that are louder than anything from the ceiling, as well as the dawn chorus outside.

Listening to a simple piece earlier, Violin, Accordion and Double Bass, I couldn't detect any problems, the Double Bass sounded fine as did the Violin and Accordion. No indication of "one note bass". Does that mean the claims of improved sound from isolation of the speakers are rubbish? No, of course not. What you can hear is what you can hear, but it is just possible that isolation is only effective in some circumstances. The only way to find out is to try.

As to the seismic isolation claims, a little research suggests that at least some of the waves are well below the frequencies of human hearing, in the region of 1Hz others are above that. Unfortunately, although we can isolate our speakers from these seismic waves we cannot do the same for our walls. Even if the speakers aren't isolated does a movement at 1Hz actually matter? I suggest not because it is always there and we simply don't hear it. In theory it could be on all our recordings, but in practice I doubt it, few microphones are sensitive to such low frequencies and neither are microphone pre-amps. The term Seismic Isolation is marketing speak for "it removes something you never knew was there and didn't affect you anyway".

[CN211276]

Bought a set of the mini-pucks to go under our mini-Klipsch. We are going to be demonstrating the starter bundle (P50, S80 cables) as a table-top system at shows, so was looking for something to isolate them. A much bigger improvement on the previous hard rubber feet than I had expected. I also ordered a set of washing machine cups, to compare...they arrive next week.

[Latteman]

White or black washing machine cups- there is a difference

[savvypaul]

White or black washing machine cups- there is a difference

Oh, dear, lol.

I ordered black.

[CN211276]

Bought a set of the mini-pucks to go under our mini-Klipsch. We are going to be demonstrating the starter bundle (P50, S80 cables) as a table-top system at shows, so was looking for something to isolate them. A much bigger improvement on the previous hard rubber feet than I had expected. I also ordered a set of washing machine cups, to compare...they arrive next week.

Interested in your findings.